Raymond S. “Indio” Tellez leaves a van Oct. 30 at the John Wood Federal Courthouse. He testified during the trial of two gang associates who were convicted in the May 4, 2016, slaying of Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina. less

Raymond S. “Indio” Tellez leaves a van Oct. 30 at the John Wood Federal Courthouse. He testified during the trial of two gang associates who were convicted in the May 4, 2016, slaying of Balcones Heights ... more

Photo: John Davenport /San Antonio Express-News

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Scroll through the gallery for a look at one of Texas' most notorious prison gangs.

Scroll through the gallery for a look at one of Texas' most notorious prison gangs.

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The Texas Mexican Mafia, despite having the word “Mexican” in its name, is not originally from Mexico.

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The Texas Mexican Mafia, despite having the word “Mexican” in its name, is not originally from Mexico.

Photo: Texas Department Of Public Safety

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They're not to be confused with other criminal organizations that use the same name, most notably California's Mexican Mafia.

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They're not to be confused with other criminal organizations that use the same name, most notably California's Mexican Mafia.

Photo: AP

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The Texas Mexican Mafia considers San Antonio the gang’s capital, according to federal court documents and state documents.

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The Texas Mexican Mafia considers San Antonio the gang’s capital, according to federal court documents and state documents.

Photo: TOM REEL /San Antonio Express-News

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Most of the Texas Mexican Mafia's membership is made up of "Mexican nationals or Mexican-American males living in Texas at the time of their incarceration," according to the FBI.

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Most of the Texas Mexican Mafia's membership is made up of "Mexican nationals or Mexican-American males living in Texas at the time of their incarceration," according to the FBI.

Photo: Texas Department Of Public Safety

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It’s unclear how many members the gang has.

An unclassified Texas Department of Public Safety report from 2014 says the gang has more than 5,500 members, while the U.S. Justice Department’s website puts that number at around 2,000.

The Texas Mexican Mafia, also called Mexikanemi, is considered a “Tier 1 gang” by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The agency says the gang poses one of the biggest gang threats because of their “relationships with Mexican cartels, their transnational activity, number of members, high levels of criminal activity, and other significant factors.”

The Texas Mexican Mafia has previously associated with the Zetas and Juarez drug cartels in Mexico.

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The Texas Mexican Mafia has previously associated with the Zetas and Juarez drug cartels in Mexico.

Photo: YURI CORTEZ, Getty Images

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The prison gang is most active in the south, central and south east regions of Texas, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

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The prison gang is most active in the south, central and south east regions of Texas, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Photo: Texas Department Of Public Safety

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The gang follows a paramilitary structure that assigns military rankings like "soldier" and "general" to its members.

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The gang follows a paramilitary structure that assigns military rankings like "soldier" and "general" to its members.

Photo: U.S. Department Of Justice

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The gang is believed to be behind the killing of slain Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina, who had reportedly been dealing drugs for the gang, in May 2014. Ruben "Menace" Reyes (left) is charged with ordering Pesina's killing.

The gang is believed to be behind the killing of slain Balcones Heights police officer Julian Pesina, who had reportedly been dealing drugs for the gang, in May 2014. Ruben "Menace" Reyes (left) is charged

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Mexican Mafia's constitution reads:

“In being a criminal organization we will function in any aspect of criminal interest for the benefit of advancement of Mexikanemi. We will traffic in drugs, contracts of assassination, prostitution, robbery of high magnitude and in anything we can imagine.”

The Texas Mexican Mafia poses as great a threat as three other Texas gangs, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety: Tango Blast, Texas Syndicate and Barrio Azteca

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The Texas Mexican Mafia poses as great a threat as three other Texas gangs, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety: Tango Blast, Texas Syndicate and Barrio Azteca

Photo: .

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Ex-Mexican Mafia general gets 20 years in prison

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A former general for the Texas Mexican Mafia has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, avoiding the likely life sentence he faced by cooperating with authorities.

Raymond S. “Indio” Tellez rose through the ranks of the notorious gang, but later became a confidential informant for the San Antonio police and then the feds, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Shearer revealed late last month during a federal trial for other gang figures. Tellez testified at that trial.

Because he helped police and the feds resolve some unsolved killings and other crimes under his tenure between 2010 and 2013, Tellez’s plea deal allowed Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia to sentence Tellez to 240 months in federal prison, instead of life, records show.

“He was the South Side sergeant and rose to the rank of general,” Shearer told jurors on Oct. 30. “To do so, he kind of took out his competition.”

A federal investigation by the FBI and Texas Department of Public Safety connected Tellez to four killings, and he pleaded guilty in June 2016 to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge, admitting he was part of the “mesa” (board) that directed the gang’s operations outside prison.

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In his plea deal, Tellez admitted he had a part in the Feb. 23, 2013, killing of Jose “Joe Black” Figueroa. He was strangled with a video-game system power cord, then stabbed repeatedly with a kitchen knife in front of 40 members who attended a 2010 “junta” — a gang board meeting — in San Antonio.

Other slayings connected to Tellez include José Anthony Bravo, shot in the face outside his Bexar County home on Nov. 27, 2011; Vincent Chacón, 29, shot and killed July 7, 2012, in an alley off Colorado Street; and Adam “Sinner” Treviño, 27, who was found shot to death Nov. 15, 2012, in a residential street north of Poteet.

“While incarcerated, Mr. Tellez began cooperating with the government, becoming a confidential informant against the Mafia,” another judge observed in July. “He … testified against several members of the Mafia, resulting in their incarceration. … The Mafia’s penalty for this cooperation is death. Thus, all 4,000 of the Mafia members previously under Mr. Tellez’s command were essentially instructed to kill him.”

The gang nearly succeeded. While Tellez was in the Central Texas Detention Facility, a private jail in downtown San Antonio run by The GEO Group, he was kept in protective custody in a medical department. Two other Mexican Mafia members walked through a door that was supposed to be locked, and one stabbed him with a “shank” as he showered in October 2013, according to testimony and documents from a trial over a lawsuit Tellez filed against GEO.

The two inmates took advantage of the lack of proper supervision to get to him, records show.

Trial testimony showed the two inmates were not strip searched or pat searched when they arrived at the jail’s medical department. Once in the medical area, one of the inmate’s restraints were partially removed by a nurse for a foot soak treatment, so that at least one hand was free and uncuffed. This was contrary to GEO policy, which stated the inmates should have been restrained by leg and hand restraints.

Tellez required hospital treatment, including staples to close his stab wounds, but survived the attack. He later was moved from that jail.

After conducting an investigation, GEO issued a report finding two of its guards committed acts of gross negligence in not following facility procedure and fired them. In his ruling in June of this year, Senior U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth slapped GEO with a negligence finding and awarded Tellez $25,000.